Seattle Reef's Biocube 32

[Seattle_Reef]

I've been lurking for some time and posting a bit here and there, but I thought I'd post my tank build with some pictures.

Biocube 32
Hydor Koralia Nano 425 powerhead
Chamber 1: Coralife Biocube Skimmer, Finnex 100W heater
Chamber 2: Stock rack with filter floss (InTank), Purigen and chemipure Elite
Chamber 3: Stock pump (may upgrade)

I bought it the first week they became available, which was middle of August I beleive. I started with live sand, 3 small pieces of live rock (fist size each), and the rest with dry rock. I was terrified of unwanted hitchhikers! I figured I just needed a little bit of live rock to seed the rest.

I'm a molecular biologist and I set the tank up in my office. So I have access to extremely high-quality deionized water. I cycled using a piece of shrimp, and the cycle went quick (2-3 weeks). I still decided to wait and be extra patient. I have a simple CUC of 4 snails and 2 hermits. I have 2 fish: a purple firefish and a yellow watchman goby. I have mostly focused on the corals. I may add another fish or two.

My care and maintenance is as follows:
Weekly 12% water change
Water Check with API once a week
Water check with Red Sea Reef Pro Test once a week (in the middle between water changes)
Following Red Sea test I dose as needed (usually Alk, sometimes magnesium)
Feed fish once a day (frozen brine and/or mycis and/or flakes)
Red Sea Reef Energy A&B daily
Reef Roids direct feeding to corals once a week
And cleaning, changing filter media, etc. as needed/required

I don't have all of the numbers here as I'm at home and my tank and logs are at work. But, my water has been almost perfect all along the way. Zero ammonia, nitrates, nitrites. pH 8.17-8.20, Salinity 1.025, temp is 77F. I don't remember my exact usual number for the reef test, but my calcium is usually good for what I need (if on the high side), magnesium is usually perfect, and alkalinity usually requires a small boost.

OK, so here's how it is looking after 4.5 months:

I'll post later with a breakdown of the corals.

Loving the tank!

 

[Seattle_Reef]

Upper right: Turbinaria peltata - Pagoda Coral (love it!)
Upper left: Duncan
Lower left: Striped mushrooms

I realize the top 2 are probably too close together and I'm planning to separate them a little tomorrow.

Right: Clove Polyps (super cool!)
Left: small Euphyllia glabrescens - Indo Gold Torch
Upper left: Zoanthids (small piece that broke off of my large zoanth rock. I'm also going to move this to where is gets more light)
And of course my firefish, who is very outgoing!

 

[Seattle_Reef]

Right: Ultra-green favia
Middle: A couple more Clove Polyps that broke off from the main colony
Left: Large rock covered in various zoanthids

Small 2-headed trumpet coral near the striped mushrooms

Another angle on the Favia

Closer look at the Pagoda Coral.

 

[Seattle_Reef]

Here you can see both fish.

 

[Catgirl29]

Looks great! I bought this tank when my JBJ 30 cracked during a move last week. I wanted to save my rock but I like your idea of starting somewhat fresh.

 

[rajilnaja]

You've been running the stock lights correct? hows the growth been with the corals? Hard finding any long term info using the stock lighting

 

[RV7AFlyer]

You need more water movement in your tank to prevent that Cynobacteria from thriving.

 

[We4wienerS]

Super healthy, very nice.

 

[Seattle_Reef]

Yes, I'm using the stock lights. The corals look good and the clove polyps have definitely proliferated. My torch has also grown a bit. The rest seem steady but healthy. I may supplement the lighting when a good solution exists.

I had a cyano outbreak about 6 weeks ago. I started doing 2 water changes a week and focused on scrubbing/sucking it all up. It was mostly gone within 2 weeks and I've gone back to once a week water changes and cyano has not returned at all. LFS said that a cyano outbreak in a tank of my age is not unusual. As for water movement, I will probably upgrade the return pump.

Originally my plan was to swap the stock media rack for an InTank unit once it became available. It's now available but my water parameters and livestock health is so good, that I'm not sure if I want to change anything. The only reason might be so that I can add a refugium. I'm just going to keep a close eye on things. I'm really good about water changes, dosing, media changes etc. Is it worth it to add a fuge? I don't really want to have to add the stock sponge back in.

 

[Seattle_Reef]

i should clarify that the bit of cyano that you see on the rock behind the pagoda is all that remains of the outbreak, but that is retreating and I will scrub it all off and suck it out on my next water change.

 

[Seattle_Reef]

Just an update. The tank is doing great! Water parameters are excellent, I just have to dose alk about twice a week. I don't have the numbers as they are at work with the tank and I'm home now. The corals are doing very well and growing so fast that I need to keep moving things around to allow enough room. My striped mushrooms have brnached out and I have 3 colonies now. Similar story with the Zoa's and clove polyps. And this is with the stock lights on the Biocube 32! Besides Alk dosing, I do daily addition of Red Sea Reef Energy A&B and Kent Coral Vite plus once a week targeted feeding with Reef Roids. I perform weekly 3g water changes. I'm very happy with the tank and how it's turning out! Everyone loves my newest addition, which is an orange plate coral that sometimes likes to puff up to 3-4X normal size. Enough of that, here are some pics!

 

[Seattle_Reef]

 

[Seattle_Reef]

 

[Jenyphur]

Wow, I love your tank and am using it as a base of some of the corals I want to add. Thanks so much for sharing! Please keep the photos coming, I love that you also specify which corals are which..this helps out someone like me a LOT!

 

[Seattle_Reef]

There are 3 newer corals that you can see in the recent pictures.

Up top, the whitish-blue fluffy thing is an Ultra Blue Cespitularia. I had to be careful on placement as it has a lot of reach and hurt some of my other corals until I finally found a place where it can't hurt the others

On the bottom right is another torch, this one being a green torch (Euphyllia glabrescens) My other gold torch which is bottom middle has really grown fast, especially if you compare the pictures. It's pretty aggressive so placement has been tricky with it growing so much.

The last new one is the round orange disk looking thing on the bottom right near the green torch. That's a orange plate coral (Fungia sp.). That one is really interesting to watch as sometimes it's a flat as a sand dollar and other times it can puff up to over an inch tall. I haven't figured out what the triggers are, although so far it has puffed up following every water change.

 

[Seattle_Reef]

I test the water once a week and the readings from 2 days ago were:

Temp: 78
pH: 8.07
Salinity: 1.025
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Calc: 430
Mg: 1360
Alk: 8.4

Alk was low so I dosed it up to about 10. All the other parameters are really solid and don't move

 

[Amc8804]

Tank looks great! I will be starting up a 32 cube build in the next few weeks. The decision I am trying to make is dealing with the second chamber. Ive read that running purigen and chemipure together can strip out needed elements for corals but yours seem to be doing fine!! Are you still running with the stock media shelves? Or have you gotten the intank media basket?

 

[Seattle_Reef]

Tank looks great! I will be starting up a 32 cube build in the next few weeks. The decision I am trying to make is dealing with the second chamber. Ive read that running purigen and chemipure together can strip out needed elements for corals but yours seem to be doing fine!! Are you still running with the stock media shelves? Or have you gotten the intank media basket?

Still using the stock shelves. I'm not looking to add anything else in the back yet, so I don't need to save the space using an inTank. I've upgraded the return pump to a cobalt aquatics MJ-1200. I've also got a Koralia powerhead, forgot the model, but it's the one recommended for this tank.

My stock fan was quiet when I first got it, but has been getting louder and louder over time, so I'll probably swap that to a quieter one.

 

[Amc8804]

Good to see someone who actually hasnt gotten the media basket yet! I was wanting to keep the stock shelves but hadnt seen anyone do it. I will follow your build closl. Seems like everything is doing good in your tank!

 

[Seattle_Reef]

Good to see someone who actually hasnt gotten the media basket yet! I was wanting to keep the stock shelves but hadnt seen anyone do it. I will follow your build closl. Seems like everything is doing good in your tank!

Yeah, water conditions and fish/coral health is really great! I will post more pictures soon with my good camera. :twitch::wave: